Chris_R

Don't feed the troll.

I'm sure they would sell at that, but nobody's going to offer it.

Of course they can, but they won't. They'll do the photos and interviews first and announce it once all that side is ready exactly like the last few transfers. Gone are the days of announcing it as soon as the ink is dry on the contract, and we'll just have to get used to that.

That's because they're all so much harder than us. When we see them, we're too cowed in terror to speak up.

Ultimately, I'll judge the owner of my football club on how they run the football club. This is exactly what I did with Ashley, and the Halls before them. Any issues I had with Ashley's ownership of us always revolved around what he did with Newcastle United, not his business practices. I didn't want him gone because he was a bad person, I'd have felt exactly the same if instead of running SD he owned non-profit puppy rescue centres and spent all his spare time reading stories to children at the local hospitals - I'd still have wanted him to fuck off and sell Newcastle. Separately, as a human being with at least a modicum of empathy, I also want the people of Saudi Arabia to live under a pleasant, forward-thinking regime just like I want the workers at Sports Direct to not have to give birth in the toilets. For clarity, I'm not equating either of those two things to any degree at all, but whilst these things are of course very worthy of discussion - discussions I'll happily join in with at any time - I can compartmentalise them from my thoughts about football club ownership. This is something I've been able to do successfully in the past, and continue to do today.

Even after he arrives, it'll be a day or 2 before its announced because we always do the photos, interviews etc to accompany the announcement. We don't seem remotely bothered about announcing things as soon as they're done, we're happy to wait a bit.

Are you sure about that?

Made me want my own fucking team to get beat. Incomprehensible that I'd tune in to our matches just to cheer opposition goals. I'll never forgive him for that. Is that Premier League title-winning Danny Simpson? (Yeah, I know, he was still shit)

Ginola's skill was outrageous. I'm sure I remember him taking corners with both feet and I've definitely seen him on highlight reels scoring free kicks with both feet in his career. To be the best professional footballer at your club at things like that with your wrong foot is just obscene. I had a season ticket back then and he was just a joy to watch, as others have said that first half-season he tormented everyone. I've never seen anyone do that before or since, just utterly terrorise the opposition week in and week out. I loved HBA and Robert, but Ginola will always be my favourite left winger. I don't know how he'd play in the modern era because he was famously a smoker and never tracked back, but by god was he glorious to watch in full flight.

Maddison was born in Coventry but we keep getting told how much he wants to move to London and people find that perfectly plausible. Maybe Ashby is just a massive fan of Whitley Bay lighthouse?

A year ago I'd have agreed. If inflation keeps going like this though we'll all need that much just for a pint of milk.

I think this is almost certainly true. In their minds, Leicester were expecting some kind of Sotheby's auction where us and Spurs keep outbidding each other. In the end, the opposite has happened. It could be argued that any price from £20m to £60m would be "fair" based on the level of interest in him, a bidding war between 2 stupid chairmen could easily have pushed it towards that higher number and you could argue that isn't unfair given his obvious talent. At the other end of the scale, if there's no interest Leicester just must sell for whatever they can get or they're faced with keeping an unhappy player and losing him for 0 in a year anyway. Neither us nor Levy were ever going to create that first scenario. They needed some kind of Man U v Chelsea war of stupidity but neither of them seem interested.

We tend to announce nothing until we've done all the media stuff. Wouldn't surprise me if we have to wait until he flies to Newcastle and does all the photoshoots before we hear anything official.

Burn somehow manages to be a worse header of the ball than Andy Cole, a man who'd repeatedly manage to defy physics and jump under the ball. A feat made all the more incredible by Burn being long enough to be continued.

Couldn't agree with you more. These chants are unbearable.

Tonali is a 4, Shirley?

£50m for Maddison £50m for Barella £50m for Tonali I'm beginning to think I've figured out what our budget might be.

Not at all, I watched us be literally 2nd worst team in the PL and Hendrick was nowhere near good enough for us then. 2nd bottom of the PL isn't much if any better than 6th in the Championship.

What he's achieved is irrelevant, it's how good he is now that matters and he's rank. Whatever talent he had has long-since left his body.

People suggesting Hendrick gets into Sunderland's team need to give your head a shake. He was clearly and obviously way too shit for us when we were 19th. Not sure why anyone would think he walks into teams just a few places lower. There's not that much gulf between 19th in the PL and 6th in the Championship, certainly not enough for Hendrick to go from being an utter embarrassment to a guaranteed starter.

And then just walk around the pitch.

If Spurs aren't interested at £25m, it's unlikely there'll be much of a queue to pay £40m

Wouldn't be surprised if it's not a plan just to get Leicester to be more reasonable about Maddison's price.

And Wilson in goal.